thank you. it's an assault against libya targets marks of missiles flying but exactly how accurate are these hits argues on the ground from tripoli with the latest. and also that stated. it is u.s. policy look at all speech to go and to each president his own war so that libya be obama's in the push to liberate the people of libya to the president for gaps of themselves with his own voters right here at home. and the battle for bradley manning protesters blocked at quantico marine base demanding the release of the wiki leaks whistleblower but will their cries be heard

and more importantly for the pentagon listen. as the international minute military intervention in libya continues to unfold western powers you appear to have tightened their grip on libyan airspace following the latest wave of airstrikes now the ongoing bombardment in the libyan capital of tripoli comes as more forces arrive to take part in operation odyssey dawn and the united states france and the u.k. remain the principal participants among these allies artie's polish leader is in tripoli and she joins us now from there with the latest paula good evening to you now what are you seeing what have what have you seen as the solution situation unfolded essentially before your eyes. well about half an hour ago there was a massive explosion here in the capital city of tripoli it sounded like it was coming from the south of the city i cannot see any smoke from where i'm standing at

the moment but we are hearing reports of smoke in the southern parts we're also hearing reports of explosions around the compound of gadhafi now it's too soon to say exactly what has been hit but for the last thirty forty even fifty minutes there have been rounds of anti aircraft gunfire at the moment the situation is quiet but as you can well imagine it just gave up spontaneously in the skies are lit up with firing we are hearing that we did hear earlier today mandate from coalition forces that they had hit one hundred and twenty four targets they are saying that this operation is a success they say that for the last two days since the coalition forces have conducted is strikes could after he's a force has been in the skies and that they have managed to stop the advancement of his ground forces at the same time though there is still fighting in three predominant cities across the country the worst of the fighting is happening in the city of misrata which is about two hundred kilometers to the east of tripoli it is the last rebel held town in the east of this country and some of the reports we're

hearing from there are quite terrifying we've been told that civilians are being brought in from other areas they've been used as human shields against these airstrikes we're being told that the soldiers have surrounded the whole city and that they stop in supplies of electricity of fuel and of water quite a crowd of critical that ration of sound like now as you just said the coalition forces are reporting the fact that they have destroyed several key assets but i have to ask i mean how accurate are these attacks are there any rumors or perhaps could you see whether they've hit unintended targets perhaps the civilian casualties in this whole effort. well the only confirmation we've had in terms of a target they've hit here in tripoli has been gadhafi headquarters there they struck a two story building in fact it was a three story building that was hit by two missiles and we were told that this was the command and control center of his operations we were taken there earlier today and the areas completely destroyed it was a small group of protesters they shouting abuse at the international community and

echoing what essentially has been. that the world has no right to interfere with internal libyan affairs but the civilian can't is what people here although you know about throughout the day today and yesterday state television has been showing pictures of funerals they put the toll of just yesterday's strikes at more than sixty seven civilians who have been killed right now they were reporting under the banner of tripoli and attack so no doubt as we see more civilians die in this conflict they will be more questions being asked on the ground exactly what the international community is doing here now although there's a difference between asking for help and actually seeing rain over your head essentially what is the atmosphere like on the ground in tripoli are you afraid for your security and how are the residents reacting there. well as you can well imagine it's incredibly tense here i mean today monday it was the first day that there was simply no one on the streets i had noticed this in previous days we were no cause we had almost spontaneous demonstrations and every time we go somewhere

people know that we're journalists they're going to come and talk to us and tell us essentially how much they support and it's very difficult to tell how much of that is genuine support and how much of it is essentially gadhafi paying these people which is so if you some of the rumors we've been hearing now there have been thousands of supporters who have gone to his headquarters they've gone there as a sign of support they've gone also to act as human shields and they've done the same thing in the airport and other key installations around the city what we do know is that they're asking questions such as we will all of this and we're hearing from rebel groups that they now plan to end wants to try and recapture some of the towns they lost with the ultimate goal of watching here on to tripoli now they are calling for international coverage international air cover while they do that and people here are saying what for just how much longer is the international community going to be involved and as they march further and further into these towns they will inevitably be more civilian deaths so as we see that civilian death tally and

increase in number so the sense of anger and a sense of condemnation against the international community is going to grow i just want to mention also though that the mixed reports coming from the arab league are certainly being interpreted and i jested here people here seem to think that the arab world and perhaps many others in the international community are not completely behind this operation despite the fact that they came on board and we do sense that their kind of criticism will grow as these coalition strikes continue to look like a changing situation on the ground please stay safe for us we look forward to more of your report thank you so much. president barack obama defended his administration's approach to the libyan crisis today and for sizing that hey it was an international mission and that other countries are going to be taking over in just a matter of days now optimistic words from an optimistic president joining me to make sense of all this is independent journalist and war correspondent keith harmon snow keith thank you so much for being here now you heard what the president had to

say so is all the hand-wringing about another protracted conflict a waste of time when obama said we're almost done right it's interesting that he says that it's needed even to transfer over to the other foods when it was supposed to be an international coalition that we would support and also he says at the end of the first paragraph of one of the speeches that he gave to relieve the burden on the u.s. military and the nation's taxpayers it would be shifted to an international coalition this is such nonsense if he cared about americans taxpayers who are funding all these wars he would take some serious steps not to be involved in these kind of things yeah i love how they just pick and choose when to emphasize international part of it and when not to i mean if you look at libya i mean this is a country that most americans probably couldn't place on a map even if you had it labeled so why do you think we choose this so-called just cause and not the myriad of other oppressed countries that we typically ignore. that is an easy target first of all the media is now saying any administration is saying that there's two less than two percent of the world's oil comes out of libya

this is nonsense maybe as a significant oil producer with massive concessions across the country that involve italy france united states and britain oil oil operations big oil in there the it could abby's an easy target it's easy to take him at this point because they knew that he was weak and was we because he had militias that supported him and he had given us had allowed these and the coalition had allowed these rebels to generate a movement against gadhafi which included a pro a very nationalist popular uprising component and then once could now be rolled against these other forces these rebel forces to justify taking it out the outweigh having already convinced the american public for the last forty years that gadhafi is the number one terrorist when as you were pointing out why libya when he got massive terrorist countries being run by terrorists were were criminals including president yoweri museveni in uganda and president in rwanda so the argument that obama made that this is a work we're warlord running

a country is just nonsense well i think i i don't really buy the whole war for oil argument because if you look at what happened with iraq for example i mean i think even the most hardened con can see that that whole invading a country for the resources just doesn't work i mean it takes. all right you break it you pay for it by the time you actually get the operations up and running out really have very much to make money off i don't know if i really buy that so what is it lucy do you think that it's about selling defense weapons or testing new weapons of the united states maybe or they get what they want to start a task that twenty two they haven't seen anything about us being. they are definitely testing new weapons at this very moment this is just another american an illegal. this clearly. adventure in attacking people and in calling it humanitarian and justifying on the basis that supposedly it's humanitarian it's for the best of the world but really it's about seizing control of libya and making sure that any popular uprising in libya is limited and it seems

only advancing our interests the oil defense you really i'm. in libya these are big mineral concessions. you know one of the two words you frequently hear from the ministration is the whole limited intervention is supposed to be a limit intervention right but i read some analysts calling the whole concept of a limited intervention to being akin to a gateway drug for expanded conflict and if you do go through history and i'll most all of the multilateral interventions of recent times from korea to somalia to virtually every single case there were multiple un resolutions authorizing even greater and greater military involvement in the conflict so can we expect that this is also going to turn out into another drawn out war or do you think that this will be limited as they. it's hard to say lucy could be quick it could be we it could be the plan is and always has been to just go in there sending out hundred ten tomahawks in the first set of bombing sorties and one ship planes and here's

a massive damage and then pull back and say ok let's clean it up france look clean it up italy let's clean it up korea let's clean it up and oh no sorry we can't use you anymore so that made the plan and it may have panned out exactly if there's a thing that's to say i should say. sorry so it may be that there's going to be a protracted conflict here which is also what's in the west with the united states wants another protracted conflict and one hand obama saying well we're not we don't really have the capacity to get into this we just have to make some strikes and for humanitarian purposes we don't want to charge american taxpayers too much money anyway and put a burden on them so just right here and there and we'll be out quick that's what we do we had done that in the past for example grenada or panama two fairly quick operations that we knocked it up killed off anybody who would say anything that we didn't like and then took control of the country and at the same time we don't know it could be short it could be long it's hard to say. short or long we don't know that was our correspondents keep our mary snow you know this actually i may have

come as a bit of a surprise to some americans who thought that obama was elected to i don't know yet the united states out of the previous conflicts we've been involved in but anyhow it turns out now that obama has his own little war war all to himself and what seems to have become a tradition for the last several u.s. presidents now archie's question for south takes a look back at some of this history. for the united states it's become an unspoken a dent into the job description. become president of the united states was declare war my fellow americans my fellow citizens for president ronald reagan in one nine hundred eighty six a familiar attack on a familiar enemy despite our repeated warnings gadhafi continued his reckless policy of intimidation is relentless pursuit of terror you cannot have done america could be passing. you counted wrong turns out so did saddam hussein yes two hours

ago allied air forces again an attack on military targets in iraq in kuwait for his successor president clinton the target was slobodan milosevic today our armed forces joined our nato allies in airstrikes against saddam forces responsible for the brutality and cause of the president george w. bush said it was weapons of mass destruction that threaten the world and invaded iraq in what was supposed to be weak and limited campaign on my orders coalition forces have begun striking selected targets some military importance to undermine saddam hussein's ability to wage war most thought it would end there with president obama running on an anti-war platform he has spent most of his presidency trying to end the wars started by his predecessor until now the u.n. security council passed a strong resolution but demands and so the violence against its. it authorized the use of force and the timeline of recent history there have been some glaring

similarities when it comes to the use of force by u.s. president none have been in response to a military attack or even threat of an attack on u.s. soil and none have ever been formally declared wars we had to protect thousands of innocent people in kosovo from a military military offensive we are determined to knock out saddam hussein's nuclear bomb potential we will also destroy his chemical weapons facilities self defense is not only our right it is our duty the definition of duty often changing the result eerily carol thank you god bless you. thank you very much christine our team. still ahead in our tease striking hard in libya american and allied forces pushed to quote liberate civilians but is this really a humanitarian intervention or the opening up the floodgates to get another american war. while the united nations calls for the protection of human rights in

libya what about the rights of an imprisoned whistleblower right here at home next see how far protesters went this weekend to fight for a private person class bradley manning dramatic arrest i want to go marine base up next. a charmer in her broadcasting live from washington d.c. coming up today on the big picture. c. c. c. c. c.

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either one. whenever government says they are safe get ready for freedom. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions. made. no one. is interview with the global machinery to see where are we cutting state controlled capitalism is called back when nobody dares to

ask me do r. t. question more. now whether we like it or not the united states is right now engaged in yet another war within a muslim country all of this in space of just one decade now it has been called a just cause and he tells you i mean murky i mean what exactly is this effort going to cost american taxpayers and what does dictionary and look even look not only that we were quick to get in but could any one of the white house explain how and more importantly when we're going to get out one u.s. congressman is calling this assault grave and says that at last constitutional authority earlier i spoke with dennis kucinich a democrat representing the state of ohio and here is part of that conversation with him but you could look at a war as a swamper one step in a slot you can suck up to and there is no limited intervention one hundred tomahawk missiles not limited one hundred twenty four sites here not limited to that eighty

two thousand pound bombs according to one general should be or have been dropped not limited this is a massive intervention already in the name of a no fly zone which isn't like telling people you just can't park in this space it's really a massive attack on the defense structure of a nation we're in a war and it has to be recognized as such and it was out without the approval of the united states congress so is this president sinking this country in a slump and is this president thinking the united states in the swamp he's taking us in a direction with this that it is. very dangerous. and he should be taking us out of afghanistan and he's taken his people into afghanistan and should've taken it out of iraq and keeping troops there for whatever period of time he shouldn't be incurring into pakistan he has and now we're in. libya it's not where people are expected and congressman we talk so often

about the financial situation that this country is in right now if you listen to the republican governors of certain states we're so broke in fact that we have to bust unions if you look at some of the bills that the body that you're a member of has passed home heating assistance is apparently not something that we can afford where we find money for this war. half of the discretionary spending right now goes for the pentagon three trillion dollars will be the cost of the war in iraq. we're already up to half a billion to half a trillion dollars in afghanistan the cost of this war for one week will be about a. half a trillion dollars in afghanistan and a half a billion dollars this war in libya will cost for one week. the money is coming where they're borrowing it or we're cutting domestic priorities were telling people they can't have jobs programs support they get war you know you can't have health care for everyone in america but we've got war you can't education for all but you get war you can't save people's homes but you're going to have war so i think we

have to start changing our priorities maybe we should focus on jobs and housing going to cation and health care and retirement security and come home and start taking care of things here at home and started telling people around the world that we have the solution to their problems we will bring to market sort of them or we will protect them as they strive for democracy and i don't i think that's beyond our capability frankly and what is within our reach and it's taken care of things here at home and maybe we should start to focus it on the congressman and with all due respect i mean you've been saying similar kind of message for quite some time from iraq to afghanistan to today do you have any sense that you are not alone place on the hill for this i don't think about a lone voice but i'm probably a more vocal voice because you know i come from cleveland ohio a community that's been wrecked by a double dip recession where we've seen industries lost and people are just struggling to survive and we look at these wars as just

a useless adventure on the part of a nation that's losing its way and we have to call merica home and start taking care of things we can't be. roaming the world looking for the right it's a slight it's about time we started to come home. i guess remains to be seen when the united states my into a little tired of being the world's policeman i want to switch gears a little bit and talk about the case of bradley manning the army private right now being held in quantico in virginia and i think it's. spoken out about this issue there were some protests there's this weekends where folks are trying to call attention to the alleged torture conditions or just very unpleasant conditions that he's been held in an r.t.s. killing for took a walk. in photos he's a smiling twenty three year old army private. but for two hundred and ninety nine days bradley manning has been behind bars accused

of passing top secret cables war logs and videos to whistle blowing web site wiki leaks here in quantico hundreds of activists and veterans have gathered outside of the military base for bradley manning is being held in solitary confinement twenty three hours a day if he's being tortured to call for his immediate relief although president obama says otherwise i have actually asked the pentagon whether or not. the procedures that have been taken terms of his confinement are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards they should remember they are state department spokesman p.j. crowley called manning's treatment quote ridiculous counterproductive and stupid and was forced to resign. well meaning spa there denounced the pentagon for stripping his son of his clothing and forcing him to stand at attention naked i mean it's shocking enough that i would. come on you know our silence as

a family and say you know this you know you crossed the line this is. protesters here denounced obama and say guantanamo bay has been brought to virginia they say the president can do better than simply trusting manning's jailers i've been saying brother in confinement and i can tell you probably is not to me. like it's getting a pile of. whistleblower daniel ellsberg responsible for leaking the vietnam war logs known as the pentagon papers called manning a hero for his. courage for other people. the more that other people realize. the descriptions richard. traitor. truth. by everybody that we. had. before being arrested with thirty five others for refusing to move from the entrance to quantico. but not everyone in this town felt bradley had

done the right thing knowing. that this man who the people are protesting for were my husband my husband's friends lives in danger it's. frustrating and denied that he was being tortured the word torture to do is to give him. it's not he's not being tortured even as amnesty international and other human rights groups say his conditions are quote degraded and bring back memories of. the pentagon has not set a trial date for manning who faces twenty two charges including aiding the enemy which could carry the death penalty but activists here and around the world so they won't back down until he's free and forward artsy triangle virginia congressman it's obviously a very serious situation here so have tried to see bradley manning putting in multiple requests given the. on around you even so that you're prepared to potentially on this program take legal action against the secretary of defense over

manning's treatment what is the latest we heard from the department of defense and they told me that they would agree to permitting me to see proudly man and they also said that it would be up to bradley manning and his attorney to make the decision we were in touch with mr manning said turney today he was meeting with bradley manning today we're told and we should have an answer very soon and no word yet on his condition before that he's been catatonic and i don't know i mean i that's one of the you know in hearing all these reports i thought it was really important to see for myself and so we're awaiting word hopefully we'll find out today that i will be able to visit with them and i hope you'll come back on this program and tell us how that goes and what's the latest on that now i do want to switch gears one more time we all remember the terrible photos that came out of the hobbit out scandal years ago unfortunately it looks like there are new photographs out about the kill team the so-called kill team in afghanistan u.s.

soldiers who are currently on trial accused of some egregious acts against afghan civilians there spiegel the german newspaper has published some of these photos we have them here they're a little bit blocked out and frankly quite graphic and image what does this do for america's image abroad and what does this say to you that this these kinds of acts can be perpetrated by allowing there's people on trial. violate their rights but the kind of pictures that you're still going to publish and i read the spiegel story. it once again points out that we're losing our way in these. military actions now most of the people who serve in our country are done through the sense but we shouldn't be there and an option is everything and you're supposed to remember it well this is a look at these images are riveted just as we remember but they kind of have

a way of imprinting. images these images were we have been printed and have been seen in the muslim world and they will be the cause of much consternation and even more anger that already exists towards america and that world are we want to believe that our countries always has the right motives but when you see searchers such as are being published. people who do not believe america has a right motives and their country occupying it are going to find all of their worst . suspicions confirmed congressman did you ever expect us to be in this situation another conflict in libya continuing on arrest this president was elected on the promise to close guantanamo and these wars are you surprised that where we are now i am i have to tell you know when i when i first came to congress which was that in one thousand nine hundred six i was elected. you know i came to congress so i could

help create jobs and help people get an education and have good health care and protect social security and and although all that's been going on over the period since nine eleven as we're talking about wars we started to lose our way after nine eleven there was a serious attack on america but the way in which that was handled and interpreted sets the stage for a global war on terror which has been a disaster and we have to protect our country to be sure there are people don't like america i understand but the manner in which we deal with it has been actually counterproductive and i think. it's really time for america to come back home refocus and try to make our peace with the world and defend the united states while rebuilding things here at home well hopefully those words will be heard by the president and others the congress say thank you so much congressman kucinich thank you again for being here all right well that does it for now for more on the stories we covered let's go to market dot com.